How Qonto Achieved 70% Faster Localization and Streamlined Operations with AI Assistants

Qonto, the leading European business finance solution for SMEs and freelancers, partners with Dust to deploy AI-specialized assistants across the company. By empowering teams to experiment with GenAI, Qonto has developed innovative solutions that streamline operations, enhance customer experiences, and pave the way for AI-driven financial management.

About Qonto: company background and vision

Qonto is the leading European business finance solution for SMEs and freelancers, with a system helping over 500,000 businesses across four key markets — that's half a million businesses, each with unique financial challenges! Qonto has made it their mission to simplify day-to-day banking for SMEs and freelancers, and with 1,600 employees, they are excelling at their mission.

The company combines innovative products, responsive customer support, and transparent pricing to simplify day-to-day banking for SMEs and freelancers by offering an online business account with finance tools, such as invoicing, bookkeeping, and spend management. They have consistently pushed the envelope in streamlining financial operations and redefining what a modern financial institution can achieve. 

But for Aymeric Augustin, Qonto's CTO, the next frontier is clear: using the power of artificial intelligence to transform not just their product, but the very way they work.

"My motto for AI at Qonto is work smarter, serve customers faster, and forge a path in AI-driven financial management"
Aymeric Augustin, CTO at Qonto.

It's this vision that has propelled Qonto into a new era of technological advancement, one where AI becomes a fundamental tool for growth and efficiency. To implement GenAI easily, Qonto turned to Dust, a pioneering platform for building custom AI assistants.

Empowering teams with Dust Platform

Qonto’s approach to AI adoption supports company-wide engagement. Aymeric and his team have provided access to the tools on Dust platform across the organization, encouraging structured innovation while maintaining their usual operational oversight

"We've let a thousand flowers bloom," Aymeric says. "We've kept tabs on what's happening to see which use cases were unlocking high value for our customers or our business."

This approach has led to a surge of creativity and innovation across the company. From customer onboarding to product development, teams are finding new ways to integrate Dust's AI assistants into their workflows.

Enhancing company operations with Dust AI Assistants 

Qonto has developed several specialized AI assistants using the Dust platform, with two standout examples being Germi and Tolki. These Dust-powered assistants have significantly improved different aspects of Qonto's operations. Germi focuses on compliance and risk assessment tasks, while Tolki specializes in content localization. Both assistants demonstrate the power of AI to streamline processes and are saving thousands of hours across various departments.

Germi: AI assistant for compliance and risk assessment tasks 

Using the Dust platform, Qonto has created an AI-specialized assistant that can determine a company's legal sector by analyzing complex 13-page tables of WZ codes (German industry codes). It also serves as a vigilant compliance screener, checking for prohibited activities against a complex set of rules. This ensures that Qonto onboards only eligible businesses, significantly reducing legal and regulatory risks while maintaining human supervision and expertise in all cases. 

Perhaps most importantly, Germi frees up Qonto's legal and compliance teams to focus on more complex cases that require human judgment and expertise. The tasks it does would take humans significant time and concentration. By handling routine classification tasks, Germi allows human experts to apply their skills where they're most needed, enhancing the overall efficiency and effectiveness of Qonto's operations.

Tolki: AI assistant for content localization

Tolki is a specialized AI assistant built using the Dust platform that is changing how Qonto approaches content localization across its four key markets: France, Germany, Italy, and Spain.

It serves as a virtual polyglot, empowering Qonto's content team to work more efficiently on localization tasks while ensuring adherence to the company's distinctive tone of voice and local standards. 

Tolki uses a comprehensive database containing over 200 localization instructions. This knowledge base enables the AI to navigate complex linguistic nuances and cultural differences with precision. It leverages advanced language processing capabilities to streamline content adaptation for diverse linguistic and cultural contexts. The system supports various content formats, including emails, web pages, and social media posts, ensuring consistent quality across all communication channels.

The implementation of Tolki has yielded significant improvements in Qonto's content operations. Content teams have reduced time spent on localization tasks by up to 70%. By automating routine localization processes, content managers at Qonto can allocate more time to complex, high-value content creation.

Results: massive time savings and efficiency with Dust

These are just two examples out of 50 specialized AI assistants used every day by over a thousand Qontoers to increase efficiency and improve accuracy. Team members who previously spent hours poring over documents now find themselves able to process applications much more quickly, leading to faster onboarding times for customers. The impact of these AI tools has been substantial, as Aymeric notes:

“We estimate that Dust AI assistants can remove at least 50,000 hours of work per year, and perhaps a lot more. Some use cases pay off in a matter of hours!”
Aymeric Augustin, CTO at Qonto.

Despite the impressive efficiency gains, Aymeric emphasizes that AI is not about replacing humans but empowering them. This is evident in the specialties of the AI assistants they have built using Dust platform. By automating routine tasks, AI frees up Qonto's teams to focus on more complex, value-added activities.

“With AI taking care of the more boring work, customer support and operations can focus more on helping customers," Aymeric explains. "There’s a lot of diversity in SMBs and in their financial needs. We want to put our energy into understanding the unique needs of each customer and providing them with the best support."

The future: building an AI-powered financial management tool

As Qonto continues to integrate AI into its operations and products, it remains acutely aware of the AI world and how quickly it is changing.

“The AI market is structuring itself with companies focusing on building language models and companies working on making these models easy to integrate into work environments.”
Aymeric Augustin, CTO at Qonto.

At Dust, we agree with Aymeric. Dust is part of the second group of companies in the AI market — the ones making it easy to integrate AI models in the work environment. For Qonto, the key to working with artificial intelligence is cultivating a mindset of adaptability and continuous learning. "We have to remember to be very agile, ready to switch tools, ready to adapt to new ways of working for a few years going forward," Aymeric advises.

Looking ahead, Qonto plans to continue leveraging AI to enhance its financial products, aiming to offer even more streamlined and intelligent solutions for SMEs and freelancers. The company's journey with Dust’s platform is a compelling case study for the fintech industry, demonstrating how AI can be effectively deployed to improve operational efficiency and customer experience.

As Qonto continues to push the boundaries of AI-driven financial management, it remains committed to its core mission: simplifying finance management for businesses. With AI as a powerful ally, Qonto is well-positioned to lead the charge in the next era of financial technology, setting new standards for what a modern, AI-enhanced financial institution can achieve.